Kinetics of steam reforming of ethane on Ni/YSZ (yttria-stabilised zirconia) catalyst

Experiments using a model gas mixture which was chosen to represent hydrocarbon fuel from hydrothermal gasification of biomass were carried out to study the kinetics of steam reforming of ethane over the Ni/YSZ (37 wt.% Ni) anode of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). For these studies gas total flow above 350 ml min−1 (STP) and catalyst particle size of 75–125 μm were chosen in order to eliminate the pore and film diffusion. A rate equation of the power form was found from the measurements at various steam to carbon (S/C) ratios ranging from 2.5 to 4.5) and various temperatures ranging from 650 to 730 °C. No significant rate drop due to coking on Ni/YSZ catalyst was observed under these conditions. The reaction order for ethane on Ni/YSZ was 1.58. For H2O, the reaction order tended to approach zero because the S/C ratio was always overstoichiometric. An activation energy of 80.5 kJ mol−1 was found for the steam reforming of ethane.